With the premier of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution series on TV (which I begrudgingly watched with Mr Chiots) there’s been a flurry of posting on the internet about the school lunch program and the health of the children in this country. I have very strong opinions about this matter, and food in general. Since we spent the month of March focusing on Real Food I thought this might be a good time for us to discuss the feeding of our children.
Who’s responsible for the nutrition and feeding of children?
the government? the state? the community? the school? the parents?
photo courtesy of al la corey on Flickr
What Is the National School Lunch Program?
According to the USDA website: The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.
A Little History of the School Lunch Program
The school lunch program was started by Harry S. Truman in 1946 for reasons of “National Security”. He read a study that said many soldiers that wanted to join the armed services for WWII were denied due to medical issue caused by malnutrition in childhood (note: my grandpa was rejected because he was double jointed in his elbows). The school lunch program was expanded by Lydon Johnson to include breakfasts in 1966 and summer lunches in 1968.
Since its inception, the school lunch/meals programs have become available in more than 98,800 schools. The 2004/05 school year reported that over 9.2 million children participated in the breakfast and lunch programs; and as many as 1.6 million children took advantage of the summer meals program that same year. *
What were school kids lunches like before school lunch programs?
What did children bring for school lunch in the 19th century? History books tell us their meals were usually composed of leftovers from the previous day. This means Italian, Irish, Swedish, Jewish and German immigrant schoolchildren likely consumed very different foods for lunch. A century later, ample evidence reveals home-packed lunches still reflected family heritage and economic status. The classic “American melting pot” school lunch of sandwich, fruit, dessert & drink was promoted by the same folks who worked hard to establish school lunch programs.
Possible “melting pot-type” school lunches based on period cookbooks are these:
1. Ham salad (or just plain ham) on whole wheat, graham crackers, fruit (apple, grapes, strawberries)
2. Chicken breast on roll, deviled eggs, carrot sticks & celery curls, ginger snaps or ginger bread
3. Corn bread & jelly, beef jerky, dried cranberries or raisins, popcorn balls
4. Cornish pasty (small portable pie filled with meat & vegetables), fruit (plums, pears, cherries), sugar cookies
5. Deviled ham (Underwood Company began in 1869) & soda crackers/saltines, canned fruit (peaches, pears), muffin (blueberry, apple, cranberry) **
What were school lunches like when they were first being introduced?
School lunch menu in Philadelphia in 1917
Monday: Baked beans and roll, Cocoa or milk, crackers or ice cream
Tuesday: Vegetable soup and roll, Cocoa or milk, crackers or ice cream
Wednesday: Creamed beef on toast and roll, Cocoa or milk, crackers or ice cream
Thursday: Macaroni with tomato sauce and roll, Cocoa or milk, crackers or ice cream
Friday: Creamed salmon and roll, Cocoa or milk, crackers or ice cream**
photo courtesy of Writing Program PTW on Flickr
So, the school lunch program is providing “nutritionally balanced” meals to our kids? really? I remember school lunches, I rarely ate them and I remember not liking them and knowing they were unhealthy. We packed our lunches because my parents knew school lunches weren’t healthy. Our lunches were simple and delicious, sandwiches on whole grain bread, carrot sticks, apples, fruit, cheese, etc. Visit the Fed Up With Lunch blog to see what school lunches actually look like.
I believe it’s a parent’s responsibility to feed their children healthy food. My parents were always proactive about keeping us healthy and about providing good food for us. We didn’t have tons of toys or tons of clothes, but we had good food and we spent a lot of time being active. Because my parents made the effort to make sure we had healthy childhoods my brother and sister and I have the blessing of being healthy adults. Sadly in our society many don’t see fast food and junk food as unhealthy (or they just don’t want to admit it since they consume so much of it). I had a friend recently who was taking her son to checkup. The son happened to mention that he was going to start drinking raw milk. The doctor gave my friend a lecture about the dangers of raw milk and how it wasn’t good for kids. This is very sad, especially coming from a doctor, because if the boy had said he was excited that his mom was going to take him to McDonald’s after the appointment the doctor would have said nothing about that.
It’s interesting to me that many people will make sure their children wear their bicycle helmets, but don’t make them eat any vegetables. Sure our children may be emotionally happy, have tons of toys, and access to health care, but if we’re not nourishing them properly what kind of future will they have? This doesn’t just affect the lives of our children but it affects the future of our country and society. These children are the future adults/leaders/parents of our country and we’re not doing a very good job of equipping them with basic health so they can enjoy a prosperous future. It’s one thing if you don’t want to eat healthfully yourself as an adult, but when you don’t nourish your children well you’re setting them up for a grim future.
Who’s responsibility do you think a child’s nutrition is?
*cited from Education Bug
**cited from FoodTimeline.org
Not Dabbling In Normal 
AMEN!!! Growing up in Germany there were no school lunches and we always brought our own. During our recent stay in Germany our girls did the same. After moving here and seeing the school lunches the girls wanted to eat in school and at first we let them. It did not take long for them to realize the food was awful! They now prefer to bring their lunches from home and are happier with that then the school lunches. They won’t even eat the school pizza, and that’s saying a lot!
I totally agree! I remember how terrible school lunches were as a student and a teacher! I have twin boys who will be starting kindergarten this year and we will be packing lunches too. It’s ironic to me that their is such a fuss about healthcare but we, as a country, don’t start at the ground and work our way up. Meaning, why don’t we work harder eating better and excercising more instead of spending so much energy trying to fix health problems that could have been avoided by living a healthy lifestyle! (this is a hot button issue, i posted about it last week in fact)
You cannot solve the problem of school lunches in a year; it will take generations. In areas with large poor populations and very young mothers, there are now families with 3 and 4 generations who have been raised, not with the idea that poor foods are healthy, but with no idea of the twinned concepts of health and food at all. When I was in grade school in the 60s, school lunches (in suburban Philly) were delicious. They were cooked at the school from fresh ingredients by professional cooks who knew you by name and wouldn’t let you take that extra ice cream, or any ice cream, if you didn’t have an apple on your plate.
It was the introduction of the profit motive into this equation that ruined school lunches, both at school and in the neighborhood. Little by little school food programs were outsourced to private companies whose primary mission was not healthy eating but return on the dollar. At my son’s original grade school, there wasn’t even a cafeteria. The kids all got styrofoam packages of that day’s lunch at their desks, where they got 15 minutes to eat it. No recess, because that would interfere with teaching the test. We were not allowed to send packed lunches, because “we have to make sure the kids are getting nutritionally balanced meals.” (! This was at the top-ranked school in Chicago.) My son used to come home starving because the “nutritionally balanced meals” (probably packed in China for all I know) were also all but inedible.
No wonder then, that kids drop into MacDonald’s on the way home. It’s the only way they are filling their stomachs. Mom commutes 2 hours each way every day, and has a second job all weekend. She does not have time to heat up a frozen supper, let alone do what I did yesterday and spend all day boiling down tomatoes, making hummus, and baking bread and crackers.
You cook the way your mother cooks. If your poorly educated, overworked mother fed you Mac’s and KFC, you have no reason to think that it isn’t perfectly fine food.
I also enjoyed good, healthy school lunches in the 70s in Wisconsin. When I entered high school (1980) a new “ala carte” menu was introduced in addition to the standard lunch menu (which had been the same for everyone with a vegetarian option). We quickly realized that “ala carte” meant “crap”, by which I mean pizza, fries, deep-fried whatever you can deep fry and ice cream. Even though all the “cool” kids dished out for the goodies, my parents did not support this option financially and I switched over to bringing sandwiches and fruit from home and, I have to admit, occasional trips to Taco John’s when I had money left over.
Luckily, my parents had a garden (partly for financial reasons, partly for culinary preferences) and I learned to appreciate fresh food. Not many kids have that opportunity nowadays, though there’s enough real estate tied up in suburban lawns to feed all the kids in the school system.
I also remember public service announcements in the 70s about eating healthy (anyone remember “Time for Timer”?), so nutrition was an issue even back then. Still, we need to do more. Parents need to become involved in schools, maybe encourage teachers or other volunteers to start gardens on the school site, for example. I know it’s not easy for parents earning low incomes with two or three jobs, but those parents who are well off enough to take a few hours a month to volunteer for causes to bring good food to school should consider doing so. It can’t be that hard.
I agree it is the parents responsibility. That said, if tax dollars are going to feed kids at school the lunches should at least be healthy.
In the Jamie Oliver show I was shocked to see that when he went into that one families house, there was not a single vegetable or fruit in sight. He dumped all that food on the table and it was a blur of fried brown. Not even an apple or a green bean. In addition, it was crazy that the school kids could not identify a tomato or a potato (I could see not being able to ID something more exotic like a mango or brocolli rabe but a tomato and a potato?????). So, obviously many parents are failing their children in regards to health and healthy eating.
And I mean no wonder the kids didn’t like Jamie’s lunches – they’d never or rarely eaten non-processed foods before. Pizza and chicken nuggets and french fries are what they know. They were used to pink strawberry milk (can you imagine?) or chocolate milk not regular low fat milk.
Watching that show was disturbing. Our tax dollars are going to poison school kids. How can a child do well and concentrate on learning when he/she is full of processed crap and no nutrients? It is criminal in my opinion.
Sorry for the rant – and this is mild – I could go on and on and on.
Great topic and I enjoyed your lists of what comprised school lunches years ago.
Our daughter attends a public school here in Costa Rica.They are only there four hours a day, but they feed the kids. We tell her not to eat the food! Some days they have baloney on white bread with natilla (runny sour cream in a bag that people drink here). Some days it is just beans and rice, those are the good days. Their ideas of nutrition are amazing.
I have to add that I was talking to a friend the other day who is having a food revolution in her home. I asked her how she could raise her two boys for 18 years and not really know what real nutrition was. She said she believed the mainstream. How can you not know that food in a box or package just cannot be as good for you as fresh food in season? Common sense is gone.
Great post Susy! I think it is the parents job first. Unfortunately the subsidies paid to industrial farmers have changed the food pyramid too heavily on the grain side. Maybe at one time grains (our daily bread) were nourishing, but no more with new varieties of grains. The explosion of gluten intolerance are shocking. Once the gut starts fighting the system and quits extracting the nutrients the body begins to starve. But “starving” can be seen in many ways in today’s children in the form of allergies and other diseases. Growing children need protein and carbs to help with brain function and to physically grow.
I was shocked to see that the girl in that family was 4, I thought she was about 8 or 9 by her size. Just like fattening cattle in the feedlot – grain makes gain and sick animals. It’s not much different in the humans either… So sad.
I grew up in Canada and there, there is no school lunch program. There was a cafeteria in high school but you paid for that out of your own pocket (and it was horrid, so I never tried it). I’d never consider having my children get lunch from school. If they’re going to eat crap food, it’ll be crap food that passes my hands into their lunchboxes (it’s an issue right now with my kindergartener but otherwise he wasn’t eating at all and was losing weight – not the best situation, but we’re going to work on it this summer).
Just like I wouldn’t expect another person to raise my children or teach them manners or morals, I wouldn’t expect another person/entity to feed them. I’m.the.parent. This.is.my.job.
It upsets me that my tax dollars are going to these programs that are making children unhealthy, and I don’t understand why they can’t be made healthier, but then I don’t understand why it would be so hard for many schools to have vegetable gardens (on the roof, for those without the yard space) and to incorporate them into science and history and geography and social studies lessons.
I grew up eating school lunches and they were pretty good. Back then (70’s and early 80’s) the cafeterias had real kitchens with nice ladies who actually cooked the food (instead of just heating up a pre-packaged factory-made entree.) We had a hot entree with 2 vegetables, applesauce, milk, homemade rolls and a homemade dessert. How times have changed! Today, most school lunch programs are awful. In my kids’ former school, there were posters of fruits and vegetables on the walls, but the fruit they served was canned in syrup, and the vegetable choices were either tired-looking tossed salad or corn. My kids packed a lunch nearly every day.
I was at this school recently and noticed that they were finally offering fresh fruit, so I hope things are improving there. Sadly, the school meal is the best food some kids get all day, so it should be healthy and appetizing. I agree that parents should take responsibility for their kids’ nutritional needs, but since so many don’t, the school has to step in and provide something appropriate for growing children.
My school actually served Taco Bell EVERY DAY. There was never a salad offered, but always french fries and soda pop. Disgusting. I can remember we used to get so disgusted when they served pizza, we would have contests to see who could squeeze the most grease out of it.
I was talking to a mother at the rink recently, because I noticed her 7 year old drinking a diet 7 up at 10 in the morning. We have a wonderful concessionaire who serve fresh orange and homemade baked goods. This mom told me that her kids “only drink diet sodas, because fruit juice has too much sugar and he doesn’t like milk” (probably because she was only serving him skim milk in the misguided idea that whole milk has too much fat.)
I was speechless.
As far as our tax dollars subsidizing bad lunches, the problem is the opposite. School systems around the country have been starved of adequate tax dollars through plebiscites limiting property tax increases, through unfair tax distribution favoring wealthy suburban children over poor urban and rural children, and NIMBY attitudes regard the other guy’s children as HIS problem and not as society’s future. School districts are forced to go with the cheapest option, which is the industrialized, pre-packed garbage.
Until Americans understand that taxes are GOOD when they are used in the community’s interest and not in corporate interests, this problem cannot be solved.
Lunch Menu for my daughter’s school for when she returns after Easter. They have a choice of 1 entree, 2 sides (including juice) and choice of strawberry, blueberry, chocolate, or lowfat milk.
Day 1: Tacos w/ Fritos, or PB&J Uncrustable; Cheese Stick, Lettuce Tomato, Cheese, Pinto Beans or Mixed Fruit or Juice, milk of choice.
Day 2: Ham & Turkey Sandwich, lettuce, tomato, pickle or PB&J Uncrustable; Nachos and Cheese; Fresh Veggies and dip or Applesauce or juice; milk of choice.
Day 3: Cheeseburger or BBQ Pork on Bun, lettuce, tomato, pickle; Baked beans or french fries, or peaches or juice; milk of choice.
Children in 4th grade and up can have salad bar and can purchase ice cream or other “snacks”. As a kindergartener, my daughter also gets a snack prepared or purchased by the parents. We each go through a rotation bringing our snack on a specific day. Normally the Kid tells me she’s eaten something along the lines of a cupcake or oreo cookies for that snack. So, like Xan says, it’s not _just_ the schools. Some of the parents are exacerbating their own childrens’ poor eating habits because they don’t have time, energy, or the knowledge.
And yes, there is already peer pressure in Kindergarten. Kids are made fun of for bringing in their lunches because they’re “different” or don’t have enough money to buy school lunch.
Pathetic.
What do we do to teach the parents any better? They have resources available. Yes, there are many working families that seriously do not have the time to commit to making bread or cannot afford locally grown/organic/natural produce. Responsibilty falls in the lap of the schools, the stores, the commercials. Libraries, television, newspapers, craft stores, grocery stores – they all give free advice about preparing healthier meals. Too many people don’t realize just how bad the food is that they’re eating until it’s set out in front of them. Perhaps it’s that “it won’t happen to me” mentality, too. And for the people who just can’t afford fruits and vegetables – shame on the schools for supplying those free lunches in the shape of tacos with fritos and a side of ice cream.
This is an issue very close to my heart at the moment. Thanks, Susy for expanding the discussion with a great post. One reason I’ll be pulling my daughter out of school next year is due to the school lunches. There are many other reasons, but if our educators are going to teach our babes about the food pyramid in their schools they darn well should lead by example.
May I ask what is an ‘Uncrustable’?
Great post! I believe it is the parent’s responsibility ultimately to be responsible for their child’s nutrition. Unfortunately so many have not clue what real nutrition is aside from the vitamins added to their child’s prepackaged food.
Uncrustables are peanut butter and jelly in something that is supposed to pass for bread with the crust cut off. The bread is sealed around the edges so it resembles a large round ravioli. Nasty things.
I first read the word “uncrustable” as “undigestible.” I thought it was an editorial comment. Turns out it’s a brand. o~O
Yuck…
While I agree that parents should be responsible for feeding their kids appropriately, for some kids a school lunch is the only meal they get to eat.
As for the ignorant parents who don’t know what is actually healthy, how will they learn if we don’t teach them in school? So let’s teach future parents by having health class, then practicing those principles in the lunch room.
I’ve never been much for cold lunch and would have preferred something warm, but as a vegetarian my only hot lunch option was french fries. Sad, but true. I often skipped lunch over eating school food. Luckily my parents fed us real food at home (though I did eat a lot of crap as a teenager, I must admit).
I’m a teacher in a Title I (low-income) high school. For 25% of the students at my school the only meals they get are breakfast and lunch from the cafeteria. Overall, 75% of my school receives free or reduced priced meals. When faced with hunger/starvation people don’t worry about meals being healthy just that they exist. In these circumstances it is very important for school to provide healthy less processed meals and lessons on nutrition.
You just sang my theme song lately! I am on a limited budget, and always choose to spend a large portion of my money on a garden. It is not cheap for me because I move a lot and so I have to keep buying the start up stuff over and over. However, it is worth it to me, to feed my children fresh, organic fruits and vegetables straight from my own garden. I know exactly where these foods came from and what went into them. My children know not just what fruits and vegetables taste like, but what they taste like straight off the vine! They also know what plant they come from! Too many people tell me I am wasting my time and money. But I so disagree and can’t believe that they don’t see the worth in it! I have been talking about Jamie Oliver’s show and I haven’t even watched it yet. I love the idea of someone actually doing something to help our children be healthier! So sad that people are saying it is a failure because the so many children don’t like the healthy food. Doesn’t that mean it is an even bigger reason to do it? Of course kids are going to choose what they are used to and what is laden with fats and sugar! Oh, it all gets under my skin! Thanks for your thought provoking post!
Rebecca
Kylie, thanks for your comment. No one wants to see kids eat more healthy than I do, but for some this not-so-healthy meal can be the only one they get. My husband is a substitute teacher and he knows that the breakfast and lunch program for many of these kids is. So getting healthy foods into the schools is going to be very important. That doesn’t excuse parents from taking care of their children and caring about what they eat. Some of our farmers market folks participate in taking food stamps yet the lady in charge of the program said that only about 50% of the available coupons were used. They plan on doing more awareness to encourage better participation.
Amen sister! I live where that show was filmed. While I enjoyed much of the show, that was the point my husband and I kept coming back to. Why start with the schools? That won’t change anything if things don’t change at home first.
My Dh was raised by a single mom who was also a school cook..he has issues with weight….He was getting lunch then leftovers
I think it comes down to educating the parents…
I watched that Jamie Oliver show and was saddened when one of the cooks said it would take too much time to make it all from ‘real food’
Thanks for posting such a wonderful commentary on Jamie Oliver’s show. I too watched the first three episodes and was completely appalled and saddened.
I’ve actually prepared a similar blog post (though not quite as well-researched and elegant as yours) and it’s scheduled to appear tomorrow on my blog.
Reading some of the comments, I noticed that a few readers mentioned the idea that school lunch is sometimes the only lunch low income kids have available. Someone else said they prefer hot meals over cold packed lunch–something I feel the same about. That’s why I ate “hot lunch” nearly every day in school (and it wasn’t quite as unhealthy then as it appears to be now).
I think rather than directing our anger at the meals and the schools, we ought to be directing our anger at the program and the USDA/FDA recommendations. The option to have a school-prepared lunch whether you need it financially or just prefer it, is a good thing. However, being a learning environment, you’d expect and hope that it’d be setting-up good eating habits, and it’s clearly not.
Nothing made me want to cry more in that show than when the kids couldn’t name common raw vegetables when shown them and the point where the school lunch director insisted that Jamie needed “two units of veggies” and actually insisted that french fries count as a veggie.
If our USDA’s food pyramid is dictating that kind of crap for America’s kids, then we need to seriously second-guess the program and insist that they improve upon it.
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